About Me

Jim Killebrew has 40 years of clinical psychological work for people with intellectual disabilities, and experience teaching, administration, consulting, writing with multiple publications. Dr. Killebrew has attended four Universities and received advanced degrees. Southern Illinois University; Ph.D., Educational Psychology; University of Illinois at Springfield, Counseling Education; M.A., Human Development Counseling; Northeastern Oklahoma State University, B.A., Psychology and Sociology. Dr. Killebrew attended Lincoln Christian Seminary (Now Lincoln Christian University). Writing contributions have been accepted and published in several journals: Hospital & Community Psychiatry, The Lookout, and Christian Standard (multiple articles). He may be reached at Killebrewjb@aol.com.

Welcome to my Opinion Pages

Thanks for stopping by and reading some of my thoughts. I hope you will find an enjoyable adventure here on my pages.

The articles are only my opinion and are never meant to hurt anyone nor to downgrade any other person's ideas or opinions.

Scroll through the page and stop to read any of the articles you wish. If you like what you see leave a comment, then tell someone where they can find this site. If you don't like what you read then leave a comment reflecting your thoughts and I will read them when I visit the site from time to time.

Thanks again for stopping by.

Friday, March 22, 2013

Satan does have power and people usually "scoff" at the
possibility that he even exists. Many people believe in God, but will not
believe that Satan is a real being who torments, deceives and leads people away
from God. We caught a glimpse as to how he works when we see him lying to Adam
and Eve in the garden and when he temps Jesus in the wilderness. His purpose is
to align as many people with him to spend eternity with him and his followers.
He is, and has been, in competition with God trying to gain power over
creation. It is just not politically correct these days to believe in the
little red man with horns and a tail that rules over "Hades" or Hell.
But as we see the effects in people's lives and the devolution of society, he
is real and he tells lies and brings the proposition to everyone he contacts
that they should not believe God, but instead fall down and worship him and he
will reward you. His reward is separation from the God of Creation and an
eternity of torment with Satan.

Monday, March 18, 2013

When
you look at society-at-large in whatever culture you care to choose, and
whatever time period you decide to explore, you will find that the collective
society is always deciding morality on the basis of the situation in which they
are experiencing.We see that in our own
society with the changing of moral behavior to fit what is fashionable in our
most glamorous idols.We heard Clark
Gable utter the famous words, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn."A collective gasp rose throughout the land at
the sound of the word "damn" in a movie theater.The immorality of it was heralded from
Hollywood to Bancroft.Within a few
short years, however, there really was not, and still isn't, any definition to describe the pornography we now
see on public television and movies in our current society.We simply exclaim, "My, how times have
changed!"Even our courts hide
behind the First Amendment, "We can't describe pornography, but we know it
when we see it."Consequently,
anything goes.

Even
in the early days of the nation of Israel long after they had obtained the Ten
Commandments from God it is clearly seen in Scripture by reading through the
Book of Judges that the people repeatedly "did what was right in their own
eyes."And each time they did it
was to their own peril; they brought down the judgment of God upon their heads.By the time Samuel had appeared on the scene,
the people demanded a king so they could have a monarch form of
government.God told Samuel to listen to
the people and their desire to have a monarch and to be sure the people had not
rejected Samuel, rather God said, "...they have rejected me as their
king."(1 Samuel 8:7)

As
communities, societies and cultures take on the form of self-governance,
monarchy, totalitarianism, theocratic forms of rule, or even democracy the
inevitable slide is toward a secular society that establishes the rules of
justice and the laws to be obeyed based on a continuum of consensus to that of
edict.The mores of each individual and
collectively begin to dictate the cooperative rule to maintain survival against
the elements.But it is never static; it
is always dynamic with ever changing rules usually in response to some issue or
event.

We
have witnessed that even in our own society which began on a foundation of "truths
to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."(United States Declaration of Independence)What started as a belief of being
"created" by "their Creator" has been transformed into a
secular society that constantly pushes for the separation of the Creator from
the government.

Secularism
and humanism proponents are ever-changing, constantly moving toward a consensus
or synthesis that tries to reachconsonance, or equilibrium to reconcile the disconnect between their
belief systems and reality; trying to reconcile their opinions with past
knowledge and traditions with current changed practices or new beliefs.To preserve personal safety people must reach
a point of agreement acceptable by all in the community, state or nation.It usually means some will give up their principles,
traditions, actions and even ethical standards by which they lived in the past.Accepting a secular form of governance allows
general acceptance of a set of rules by which all will live.This almost always creates another form of
cognitive dissonance within the mind of the Christian.

I
wonder if that is not the dilemma our nation faces today?We have a nation where perhaps the majority
of people believe in God, at least by some measure.Yet we have all but discarded Christian
principles in favor of a secular form of government that through the years of
growth and maturity has become powerful and strong.It has developed into a form of government
that is believed to be "We the People" yet it has become a government
with men and women holding powerful offices for limitless terms, building for
themselves spheres of personal power and great wealth.Their will prevails through the laws,
regulations, taxing powers and bestowed favors.Oftentimes they exempt themselves from the adverse effect of the laws
they pass for others.They secure for
themselves special interest groups who surround them with protection and favors
allowing them to write special "riders" to major legislative laws
that provide special favors to the special interests that favor the individual
lawmaker.It is simply another
by-product of the secular form of government.

In
our own government, as well as others throughout history, we eventually embrace
the secularism and humanism to dilute God's Absolute Truth to a form of
"situational ethics."To
control the larger population the ideas of secularism must be infused
throughout the citizens of the "collective."This has been done in our culture and society
through the mandated public education system, higher education and through the
dissemination of employment in both the public and private sectors.Social justice issues are brought to the fore
as "humanistic" efforts that reinforce the pervasive learning through
the educational systems in the communities by "standardization" of
curriculum and texts.Those who resist
the influence of a growing, powerful government are ostracized by those who
have "bought" into the system.Media is rewarded for partnering with the powerful figures in government
and reap plentiful rewards of associations and privilege and celebrity
positions in society for supporting those powerful lawmakers.The cycle of dependency permeates those whose
livelihood is sustained by the "entitlements" endowed by those who
"represent" them.The
entitlement is purposely kept at subsistence levels to ensure dependency but at
the same time not build motivation and strength to leave the dependency
model.

Secular
society measures morality against the social mores accepted by
society-at-large; Christians measure morality against the Standards established
by the God of the universe.It always
comes back to our individual choices.The Christian should never totally depend on the government to sustain
their livelihood.The government may be
sustained for many more years; or it could end abruptly.For the Christian it is their belief in the
God of Creation and His plan of salvation through the work of Jesus Christ on
the cross that sustains, not the dependency model of government. We must remember it is God Who is the
Righteous Judge in the long run, not a society.

Friday, March 15, 2013

I
think it may have been St. Augustine who said in essence, as an unbeliever you
do not believe God exists; as a believer I believe He does exist and everything
He says is Truth. What if when you die I am right and you are wrong? It will
make a tremendous difference to you in the way you lived your life. You will
face judgment and sentencing from the God of the Universe. If when I die and
you are right, it won't really make any difference to me, I will be dead. How
willing are you to take that chance?

Going
a step further, when a person believes in God, how is it not possible to also
believe He has tirelessly communicated with us to reveal His plan of
salvation?If a person believes in God
and even believes on a cursory level the writings in the Bible, how would it be
possible not to believe that God worked through His Son Jesus to reconcile the
world to Himself through the sacrifice of shedding His blood on the cross to
provide the means for salvation to all who believe?

To
stand firm in disbelief in the face of all evidence God has offered is a stubbornness
rooted in ignorance, grown into foolishness
and finished in futility.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Listening
to the President the other day talking about our economy and his ideas of the
budget and comparing it to the Paul Ryan budget proposal, it seems evident
there are two different philosophies at play regarding how a budget should be
formulated and implemented.

The Administration makes no mistake about clearly
wanting to drive the US economy into a European-style socialist welfare state.
Redistribution and equalization of wealth by taxing more and more of the
"wealthy" wage earners, business owners and corporations will drive
the government to grow at exponential rates, while at the same time stifle the
growth of the private sector of business . As the rate of government grows at
greater speeds it will take more agencies to be created with more policies and
regulations to implement more and more programs. The case in point is what we
are experiencing right now on the eve of the health care services known as
Obamacare. The outcome of that venture will surely lead to a single point of
service for health delivery that will be overseen by the government.

The Paul Ryan budget proposal by contrast, is based on
the reduction of the huge debt looming over our collective heads projecting
well into the next two generations. The Ryan budget significantly pays down
that debt over the next ten years as well as deliver a balanced budget to
actually reduce the spending. It is based on pro-growth, market-style free
enterprise practices with a fairness in the taxing revisions leading to lower
taxes for everyone and with the more wealthy Americans paying a higher rate. It
also proposes about a three and one-half growth during the ten-year period. The
Ryan proposal also presupposes the appeal of the Obamacare plan.

The question I have is what makes the European-style
socialist welfare system so attractive that so many of the more liberal
Americans and the Administration wants to move in that direction? When the
world media allows a glimpse into the inner workings of the countries like
Spain and Greece, we have seen nothing as positive as the American free
enterprise system. In fact, we are witnessing the destruction of those
economies; they are going bankrupt, credit ratings falling, value of the
monetary systems plummeting, joblessness increasing, the ranks of the poor
increasing and people even rioting in the streets due to the austerity measures
that must be taken because these governments have run out of money.

Would someone who really knows the details of the
economy systems explain why the President wants to fundamentally change the
free market system of growth practiced in the United States since the beginning
in favor of the European model?

This
was sent to me by my brother-in-law; I wonder what they say about doing the
same thing over and over, but expecting different results. It seems Chicago,
and Illinois, has proven over the years that the policies being espoused by our
current national Administration is not really the best way to go.

There
are more people on Welfare in Illinois than there are people working.

Chicago
pays the highest wages to teachers than anywhere else in the U.S. averaging
$110,000/year.

Their
pensions average 80-90% of their income. You can't blame that on republicans
because there aren't any.

Wow,
are Illinois and Chicago great or what?

Be
sure to read till the end. I've never heard it explained better.

Perhaps
the U.S. should pull out of Chicago?

Body
count: In the last six months 292 killed (murdered) in Chicago.

221
killed in Iraq AND Chicago has one of the strictest gun laws in the entire US.

Here's
the Chicago chain of command:

President:
Barack Hussein Obama

Senator: Dick Durbin

House Representative: Jesse Jackson Jr.

Governor: Pat Quinn

House leader: Mike Madigan

Atty. Gen.: Lisa Madigan (daughter of Mike)

Mayor: Rahm Emanuel

The leadership in Illinois - all Democrats.

Thank
you for the combat zone in Chicago . Of course, they're all blaming each other.

Can't blame Republicans; there aren't any!

Chicago
school system rated one of the worst in the country.

State
pension fund $78 Billion in debt, worst in country.

Cook
County ( Chicago ) sales tax 10.25% highest in country.

This
is the political culture that Obama comes from in Illinois. And he is going to
'fix' Washington politics for us???

George
Ryan is no longer Governor, he is in the big house. Of course he was replaced
by Rob Blajegovitch who is...that's right, also in the big house. And
Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. resigned a couple of weeks ago. That is
because he is fighting being sent to...that's right, the big house.

The
Land of Lincoln, where our governors make our license plates.

But
you know what?

As
long as they keep providing entitlements to the population of Chicago, nothing
is going to change, except the state will go broke before the country does.

"Any
man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the Government take
care of him; better take a closer look at the American Indian."